Since the advent of the credit card in the 1920's, a number of electronic information cards have evolved such as debit (or cash) cards, credit cards, identification cards, department store cards, and the like. Recently, integrated circuit (IC) cards, named as such since a minicomputer is integrated into the cards, have become popular for their convenience, stability and numerous applications.
In general, IC cards are of a shape such that a thin semiconductor device is attached to a plastic card of the same size as a credit card. As compared to a conventional credit card, including a magnetic media strip, IC cards enjoy various benefits such as high stability, write-protected data, and high security. For this reason, IC cards have become widely accepted as the multimedia information media of the next generation.
IC cards can be roughly classified as a contact IC card, a Contactless IC Card (CICC), and a Remote Coupling Communication Card (RCCC). In connection with the CICC, ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission) have formed a specialized system for worldwide standardization. Particularly international standard ISO/IEC 14443 specifies the physical characteristics of proximity cards, radio frequency power and signal interface, initialization and anti-collision, and transmission protocol. Under ISO/IEC 14443, the contactless IC cards incorporate an integrated circuit (IC) that performs data processing and/or memory functionality. The possibility of contactless card technology is a result of the achievement of signal exchange via inductive coupling with a proximity coupling device (that is, a card reader) and to ability to supply power to the card without the use of galvanic elements (i.e., the absence of an ohmic path from the external interfacing equipment to the integrated circuit(s) contained within the card). A card reader produces an energizing radio frequency (RF) field which is coupled to the card in order to transfer power and which is modulated for communication. The frequency fc of the RF operating field is 13.56 MHz±7 kHZ.
FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate concepts of communication signals for Type A and Type B interfaces of the ISO/IEC 14443. The communication signal of FIG. 1A is transferred from a card reader to a contactless IC card, and the communication signal of FIG. 1B is transferred from the contactless IC card to the card reader. The ISO/IEC 14443 protocol describes two communication signal interfaces, Type A and Type B. Under the communication signal interface Type A, communication from a card reader to a contactless IC card utilizes the modulation principle of ASK 100% of the RF operating field and a Modified Miller code principle. The bit rate for the transmission from the card reader to the contactless IC card is fc/128, that is, 106 kbps (kbit/s). Transmission from the contactless IC card to the card reader is coded by the Manchester code principle and then modulated by the On-Off Key (OOK) principle. Presently, cards that are managed by the communication signal interface of Type A in subways and buses of Seoul, Korea, generate timing of a constant interval of time using an ASK-modulated signal received from a card reader, and receive and transmit data one bit at a time.
When data is transferred from an IC card to a card reader, power is stably provided to the IC card from the card reader. However, when data is transferred to the IC card from the card reader, a pause period t2 as shown in FIG. 2 is created. Namely, power to the card reader from the IC card is interrupted during the pause period t2. At that time, a clock signal generated in an RF receiver has a discontinuous waveform. Under these conditions, it is difficult to maintain the specified bit rate of 106 kps for the ISO/IEC 14443 Type A protocol, because a synchronous clock signal for transmission and receipt is generated by dividing such a clock signal having a discontinuous period.
FIGS. 3A and 3B show data frames of ISO/IEC 14443 Type A data. FIG. 3A illustrates a short frame that is used to initiate communication and consists of a start signal for communication S, 7 data bits transmitted in an LSB-first orientation b1-b7, and an end signal for communication E in this order. FIG. 3B illustrates standard frames that are used for data exchange and consist of a start of communication S, 8 data bit+odd parity bits b1-b7 and P, and an end of communication E. The LSB of each byte is transmitted first. Each byte is followed by an odd parity bit P. The parity bit P is set such that the number of 1s is odd (b1 to b8 and P).
A conventional decoding circuit in a contactless IC card extracts respective bits from an RF signal received in synchronization with a synchronous clock signal, separates the extracted bits into a start bit S, data bits b1-b7 and an end bit E, and detects received data from the separated bit information. A synchronous clock signal having no discontinuous period (that is, a pause period) is required in order to enable the decoding circuit to operate normally.
There is thus a need for generating a synchronous clock signal of a constant frequency from a radio frequency signal having a discontinuous or pause period t2 as shown in FIG. 2 for contactless IC card technology.